Ideas and Insight supporting all stages of Drug Discovery & Development

It would be
hard to miss the current interest in finding effective treatment for COVID-19. In
this regard, the combination of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) with azithromycin is getting
a great deal of attention. HCQ, sold under the brand name
Plaquenil, is a well-known anti-malarial drug, while azithromycin is a
common antibiotic that is usually used for the treatment of strep throat (the
widely used Zithromax, Z-Pak).

This article was originally published on Feb 28, 2020, and has been updated on Apr 13, 2020.

Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread from its starting point in Wuhan, China. As of February 23, 2020, a total of 32 countries and territories have reported 78,811 cases (98% in China) and 2462 deaths [1]. The international scientific community is in a race against time. Researchers across the globe are collaborating to develop antivirals and vaccines to contain the spread of 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).

Quickly communicating pertinent clinical information, such as research regarding patient treatments, is critical during public health crises like the ongoing novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, the standard publication process for scientific articles, including peer review, can take as long as two years, and this slow pace of scientific publication can interfere with response to the public health emergency. A faster means for relaying information on COVID-19 research is required.

Fortunately, a more expedient way to disseminate ongoing research information is already available through the use of preprint servers, such as Elsevier’s SSRN. With preprint server publication, research becomes available online pre–peer review for public review and comment as soon as the server verifies certain standards are met (e.g., content is complete, patient privacy was protected). The time taken between article submission and online publication is much faster, typically in the range of hours to days.

Integrating
the rich information from multi-omics data has been a popular approach to drugs
discovery and development against novel 2019 severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). To facilitate the integrative analysis and power
the global researchers, we have constructed various models that contain
biomedical pathways information for SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. Now they are
available for public access.

Drug discovery is a time-consuming and
costly process (and all the more costly because it’s time-consuming).
One of the hopes of the era of Big Data has been that having access to a wealth
of scientific information could help speed the discovery process. However, the
data itself has proven to come with many challenges. Medicinal chemists like
myself are often frustrated in our attempts to integrate and work with
disparate and unstructured sets of data.